Method of washing and drying dishes and apparatus for practicing same



c, E HRET 2 ,l55,220 METHOD OF WASHING AND DRYING DISHES-AND APPARATUS on PRACTICVING SAME April 18, 1939.

Filed Jan. 9. 1937 INVEiVTOR. Clement Ehret I m {ML ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 18, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ES AND SAME METHOD OF wssnmc AND perms DISH- APPARATUS non PRAGTICIRG Clement Ehret, White Plains, N. Y. Application January 9, 1937, Serial No. 119,715

3 Claims. (01. 1419) washed, through the employment of relatively simple mechanismutilizinga minimum amount of power. The novel manner herein disclosed comprises displacing the surface strata of a body of water by one or more rapidly moving surfaces placed in inclined relation to said'surface and preferably projecting .both above and below the same and also preferably rotating about an axis normal to said surface.

Features of the invention, other than those adverted to, will be apparent from the hereinafter detailed description and claims, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

The accompanying drawing illustrates different practical embodiments of the invention, but the constructions therein shown are to be understood as illustrative, only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic vertical central section of apparatus embodying this invention with the parts at rest.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view illustratin the method of this invention. ti Figure 3 shows a different form of a vane sec- Generally speaking, the casing 5 of the washer may conveniently be made, by casting, spinning or otherwise fabricating the same, into appropriate form and size to receive thereina wire basket 62 which may, if desired, be provided interiorly with partitions or' racks, so as to support dishes, glassware, etc. in upright condition.-

The wire basket may have a suitable handle whereby it may be readily placed into or removed from the casing and .when in place therein is adapted to be supported upon a grid or openwork partition 63 which spaces the basket from the bottom of the casing.

Into the space or chamber 64 beneath the partition 63, the driven shaft 8 extends and fixed thereon are one or more impellenvanesJiS. Figure 1 clearly shows this construction. The vanes extend in a radial direction and are inclined with respect to their plane of symmetry. They may be made of a wide variety of shapes so long as they are satisfactory for the carrying out of the method which I will next explain.

For a clear understanding of this method, at-

tention is directed to Figures 1 and 2 01' the drawing. The chamber 84 is adapted to be charged with water up to the level indicated at 66 and the casing 5 may be perforated as shown at 61 to provide an overflow to control this 5 water level, whereby it may be maintained substantially constant. The driven shaft 8 extends through the bottom of the chamber in a direction normal to the water level Eli and the impeller, with its vanes 65, is fixed on this shaft at such a 10 height that the upper edges of the vanes will extend above the surface, while the lower edges of the vanes will be submerged when the vanes are at rest. The vanes are shown as twisted in opposite directions and are adapted to be rotated, 15 so that their upper edges are their leading edges. In practice, they are preferably curved in a longitudinal direction, although they may be straight without departing from this invention and, instead of being flat as shown in Figure 3, they may 20 be curved on their under sides, so as to have a. scoop efiect.

I have found that when a vane, moimted in this relation'to a body .of water, is rotated, the phenomena shown in Figure 2 will result and '35 will cause the water to be thrown in an upward inclined direction against the dishes in the hasket 62 and against the side of the casing 5 torebound therefrom as shown. The water will be thrown with considerable force depending 30 upon the speed of the vanes and will produce a. highly efficient cleaning of the dishes contained in the basket.

An important feature of this method is that a considerable mass of water is thrown and it is 5 not broken up too finely. .As a matter of fact a fine spray will not clean dishes as well as large masses of water thrown in not too finely divided state. Efflcient washing of dishes requires mass and velocity and when water is impelled against 0 them in the manner stated, the result is highly satisfactory. The impeller described impels the water in appreciable masses forcibly against the surface of the dishes and effectually cleans them.

The fact that the impeller operates at the surface 45 flow controlled, fresh water may be constantly '5 fed into the casing, so as to maintain afsubstantially clean condition of the water therein. This latter result may be efliciently carried out by providing a readily removable connection 68 between a hot and cold water faucet l and an inlet nipple 10 on a suitable cover 6, as shown in Figure 1, the faucet being turned on to supply water, either hot or cold, or a mixture thereof, asmay be desired, and in such quantities as to maintain the level in the pool and to thereby assistfln carrying of! impurities and tending to maintain the water in the pool practically clean and at the desired level through a supply of fresh water'which may be fed either constantly or intermittently into the casing.

Figure 1 shows a simple form of driving mechanism of the washer for here the drive is direct ffrom a prime mover 24. Other forms of driving connections between the impeller and the prime flexible shaft may be used, to advantage.

"invention is not limited -in.this connection.

mover 24 may be employed and in some cases a The The device is used by charging the casing 5 with water to provide the required pool in the chamber 64. Dishes are thereupon placed in the wire basket 62 and the basket is set in the casing i and the cover 6 applied. Power is then turned on to energize the motor and the impeller vis driven to throw water on to the dishes as shown 30 in Figure 2.

During the operation of the washer, the overflow 1 may be left open and the faucet turned on to supply fresh water. continuously or periodically through the connection 68, which conveniently may be a slip hose connection. The casing and dishes remain stationary, the moving part being the water impeller which throws the water on to the dishes in appreciable masses to properly cleanse the same. a

.After the impeller has been operated through a suiilcient period to accomplish this result, the motor is turned off, the cover removed and the wire basket may thereupon be lifted out of the .casing and set aside temporarlly'while another basket with dishes or other articles therein is placed in the casing for washing while the contents of the previous basket are being dried.

Inthe carrying out of the method of this invention' very good results have been obtained where the vanes are rotated so as to be partially submerged in the water in the container. I do not wish to limit this partial submerging to any particular degree and in some cases the vanes may be submerged entirely but closely adjacent to the surface of the water, as the fundamental purpose of these vanes is to agitate .and throw -thewaterasdesc1ibedand1donotlimitto more or less submersion so long as the effect described in connection with this method is carrled out.

It will be noted from Figure 1 that I have shown a water draw-off at the base of the casing. Itislocatedsoastodrainthepoolfrom the casing when desired. It may be of any appropriate form, but is shown as a screw plug in. To drain the water from the pool the plug may be removed and the water will run out.

After the water has been drained as stated, the washed dishes contained within the casing may be completely or partially dried by operating the impeller as a fan, so as to produce a draft of air through the dishes in the casing. The motor 24 may be of the reversible, variable speed type, with appropriatecontrols as will be well understood in the'art, so that the impeller may be used as a fan to force air through the dishes to dry or partially dry the same. The fan may be operated for a suificient period to thoroughly dry the articles in the casing or it may be operated long enough to effect a partial drying of the same and in any event the articles may be subsequently removed from the casing in dried or partially dried condition.

- In the foregoing detailed description I have set-forth different practical forms of the invention for. the purpose of illustration, but the in-' tationon an axis normalto said plane, a rotary impeller mounted on the shaft and having vanes, the surfaces of which are inclined with respect to said plane, and means for rotating said impeller with the leading edges of all of the vanes projecting above said plane and the trailing edges of all of the vanes projecting below said plane.

2. The method of washing'dishes which comprises establishing a pool of water, positioning dishes above and in spaced relation to the, plane of the surface of the pool, and thereafter rapidly moving, through the surface strata of said pool, a water impelling surface inclined to said plane while maintaining the leading edge of the waterimpelling surface above said plane and its trailing edge below said plane to displace wate'rfrom the pool and forcibly-throw it in divided form upon said dishes.

3. The method of washing dishes which comprises establishing a pool of water, positioning dishes above and in spaced relation to the plane of the surface of the pool, and thereafter moving, through the surface strata of said pool, a succession of water'impelling surfaces, each inclined to said plane while maintaining the leading edges of said water impelling surfaces above said plane and their trailing edges below said plane to dis- .place water from the pool and forcibly throw it of said pool, an impeller shaft journalled for ro- 

